Has MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY had a hair transplant?

As well as making an extraordinary acting comeback in recent years, Matthew McConaughey’s hairline seems to have made a McConaissance of its own. Photos dating back to the late 90s show the Oscar-winning actor with a heavily receded hairline but in recent years this seems to have transformed into a dense and youthful mane. So what has he done to reverse his hair loss?

1999

McConaughey was arrested in October 1999 and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The story goes that police found him dancing naked and playing bongo drums following a noise complaint from a neighbour.

This led to the above mugshot being taken which clearly shows a receded hairline. On the Norwood scale, McConaughey is clearly around a Norwood 3.

At this time he would have been around 30 years old and these photos show that he was very clearly losing his hair.

Wavy hair, such as McConaughey’s, naturally curves as it grows out, taking up more space. This creates an illusion of thicker hair, concealing baldness better than if he had straight hair. Despite this, these pictures clearly show a receded hairline and thinning mid scalp. At the age of 30, McConaughey’s hair loss was already at a fairly advanced stage.

There’s no doubt that around this time he was suffering from androgenetic alopecia (typical male hair loss).

David Letterman interview

In a 2001 interview with David Letterman, McConaughey was sporting a full head of hair once again.

“There’s something different about your hair. Am I right about this or am I nuts?!”

It’s kind of a weird question to ask right away and something about Matthew McConaughey’s response isn’t quite right either.

He attributes his hair regrowth to a product called Regenix.

Currently just two products are FDA approved to regrow hair and Regenix is not one of them. There are a lot of snake oil products out there and, while I haven’t tried this product myself, I highly doubt that this product alone could have caused such dramatic regrowth.

The hairline is a notoriously difficult area to regrow hair, even more so than the vertex (crown). Even the FDA approved solutions are unlikely to have actually regrown his hairline so dramatically.

McConaughey does also say he rubbed the product into his hairline for 20 minutes a day. While there may be something to be said for manually stimulating growth this way, reports of success are anecdotal at best.

My suspicion is that McConaughey had his first hair transplant in 2000. He does appear to have real hair in the Letterman interview and it is highly unlikely that this level of regrowth was achieved by any product on the market back then.

2008

Not a bad head of hair for someone just shy of 40. Especially compared to how it looked 10 years earlier!

The above screenshot from Surfer, Dude (2008) shows McConaughey with a much-improved hairline compared to the 1999 mugshot. However, the density leaves something to be desired.

A hair transplant involves taking hair follicules from areas of the head that are genetically resistant to going bald (the back and sides) and replanting them into the bald areas.

The implanted hair then grows as normal hair. However, a hair transplant won’t stop the existing (native) hair in these areas from continuing to miniaturise and eventually falling out.

By 2008 it seems that this is what was happening to the actor. He no longer has the distinctive ‘island’ of frontal hair and receding hairline characteristic of a Norwood 3. But the hair has continued to thin behind the first transplant.

This is particularly evident from this photo of McConaughey at the 2008 Nautica Triathlon in Malibu:

McConaughey’s hairline at the left temple definitely appears to have more hair in comparison to the 1999 mugshot. This supports the theory that he’d had at least one hair transplant by this time.

But with wet hair – having just come out of the water – there’s no hiding the fact that his hair loss has continued. McConaughey’s hair appears thinnest behind the hairline, which would be an unusual pattern for androgenetic alopecia.

2014

Fast forward to 2014 and McConaughey’s hair has made a dramatic comeback.

Here he is at the 2014 Oscars sporting a head of hair worthy of its own award.

With a decent hairline, it’s perfectly possible that this look was achieved with hair loss concealer products such as DermMatch, Toppik, or KeraFiber. For an event as important as the Oscars, you’d expect the actors and actresses to have access to the best hair and makeup on the planet.

Has Matthew McConaughey had a hair transplant?

As a leading man often cast as the love interest in romantic comedies, having a decent head of hair is massively important to his career.

And as an A-list name there’s no doubt that McConaughey has the resources – time and financial – to have have had a hair transplant on at least one occasion. Not only that, he has access to the best advisors on the planet to ensure the best results.

Wouldn’t you do the same in his position? If your career depended on it and money and time were no object?

In an industry obsessed with appearance, Hollywood hair transplant surgeons specialise in maintaining and restoring the hair of their celebrity patients. Modern FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) techniques are virtually undetectable, don’t require the patient to shave their head, and leave minimal scarring. Just wear a hat for a couple of weeks and no one need ever know!

There’s even rumours that today’s techniques allow celebrities with minimal hair loss to receive ‘top up’ FUE treatments every year or so just to maintain what they already have. This makes it more difficult to detect than if they suddenly went from Norwood 5, say, to a Norwood 2 in a short space of time.

But for McConaughey, the difference is clear. There’s 15 years difference between the two sets of photos above and not only has he maintained his hair, but it actually appears to have regrown. Even with the best medication, this is highly unlikely to have happened without a hair transplant.

With or without hair though, McConaughey is an awesome actor.

And while we’ll never know for certain if he’s had a hair transplant what I will say is that if I was in his position it’s what I would do!

Update: McConaughey addresses hair transplant rumors

In a January 2017 interview, Matthew McConaughey directly addressed the hair transplant rumors:

9 comments

Duh. Of course he had hair transplants, there is no question about it. He had a lot of hair in the back so it was a great donor area to harvest from. He must have a damn good doctor too because it looks very, very good and natural. Why not, its simply taking hair from other areas and moving to where you need it? If you have the money and time … I say go for it.

It’s quite receded actually fo six. And at least 20000 hairs are needed, plus his side and back hair still seem still thick for having harvested that much. I understand if this was a dense pack and then maintenance, but the authour is going for the thesis of hair receding behind his first transplant, while to me the recession still seems frontal.

I wish men would be more forthright with what they have done for successful hair transplants instead of lying and covering it up. There are many young men who would spend their life saving if they know more about successful options. Nobody wants to spend lots of their hard earned money on something that ends up being unsuccessful. We don’t all have the resources that Hollywood and the NFL has. We would love to know a doctor that really can give wonderful results in the midwest or east coast. Any great advice? Would LOVE to hear!!

Could be a transplant. But he may also have had a hair piece attached. They literally shave your head (the part with the most hair loss) and glue a hair piece on. Then cut it to desired size. Very realistic looking.

This, imo, could be most likely. The way he doesn’t run his fingers through his hair, to me, is indicative of this.

It’s not a transplant. Even when transplants work, they are very gradual, and never result in full, luxurious heads of hair like this.
It is a ‘hair system’, otherwise known as a wig! Many other actors wear them eg Tom Hanks, Ben Stiller. They are more sophisticated and more realistic looking than the crude old toupees, as worn by John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis etc, but they are still wigs.